Friday, November 30, 2007

A new piloting journey

I've just taken the first small step towards obtaining my commercial pilot certificate. Granted, it's a small step (ordered & received written test prep book plus an '08 FAR/AIM)...but it's a step none the less towards my transition from PP-ASEL to CP-ASEL.

All I need to do now is start studying for the written test and I'll have accomplished my goal for '07. I figure I'll take the written test in early '08 and start the flying portion in late winter or early spring '08. There is that small matter of my CFII and whether he'll be located in California or Oregon but that's ok. First thing first: study for the written test, pass it and have it out of the way.

I do have two nice advantages that I plan to exploit. One: A nice complex aircraft at my disposal. This is one of the reasons I bought into the Arrow and after nearly three years of ownership and several hundred hours flying it, things are extremely familiar and comfortable. Two: One partner just recently received his CP-ASEL certificate so I plan to use his knowledge to learn the maneuvers in our plane.

I'm hoping to post more about my experience progressing from PP-ASEL to CP-ASEL. For the immediate future, I'm sure this will not be very exciting since it quite likely may involve rants about written test questions and such. :-) Blah...I promise it will be more exciting some number of months down the road.